


The More I Know You, the More I Smile

by yumetourou



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: College AU, M/M, Winkdeep, cynical!jinyoung, jinyoung works at a bookstore, nothing else really, sassy?jihoon, trying something different, winkdeep agenda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 17:10:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14675685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yumetourou/pseuds/yumetourou
Summary: A chance encounter turns into an unintentional dateAU in which bored and tired college student Jinyoung gets "woken up" by something as simple as a cup of coffee





	The More I Know You, the More I Smile

Bae Jinyoung would not describe his job as enjoyable. One would think that with his love of books, working in a bookstore would feel like home to him. True, for the first month it had been quite fun. He had discovered many new titles to read and new authors to obsess over. But six months later Bae Jinyoung found himself hopelessly bored. The biggest perk was that it was nearer to campus than most jobs for students. The many,  _many_ cons consisted of late hours on weeknights, early mornings on weekends and holidays, rude customers, entitled customers, children spilling things, paper cuts, the list goes on. But Jinyoung digresses. He currently sat behind the counter, reading glasses smudged, can of diet Pepsi opened and gone flat, and eyes closed. If anyone asked, he wasn't asleep - just resting his eyes. It was around five in the afternoon on a Thursday, Jinyoung didn't understand why he needed to be clocked in at this time. What poor soul buys books on a Thursday at five in the afternoon? The world had better things to do. Except for one person. The bell over the door rang to signal someone's arrival. A boy wandered in, heading to no particular section. Jinyoung recognized him as Lee Daehwi, his seat partner in their shared biology class. Jinyoung wouldn't consider them friends, they were acquaintances at most but a better descriptor would be slightly less awkward than strangers, simply because they were forced by the seating plan to tolerate each other's presence. Daehwi didn't seem to notice Jinyoung until he called out the standard and positively stupid shop greeting that was ingrained into every employee's mind.

"Welcome to Hwang and Kang's Books and Thangs. How can I help you today?" Daehwi looked over at him, holding back laughter. 

"Oh, hi Jinyoung," he giggled, the obvious cause being the employee greeting, "I didn't see you there. Can you tell me where the physics textbooks are?" Jinyoung wordlessly pointed to his left without looking up from the rubber band he was fiddling with, hearing Daehwi's light footsteps fade as he presumably went to go find his textbooks. Jinyoung glanced at his watch. 5:26 pm, his shift ended at 5:30. Four more minutes of hell and he would finally be free. He started his own personal countdown and prayed that Daehwi would take longer than 240 seconds to select his books. Jinyoung closed his eyes again, waiting for the employee entrance door to open, signifying that his replacement was ready to clock in. At 5:29:34 exactly, said door swung open. Jinyoung breathed a sigh of relief, finally he could return to his dorm. It was days like this he was thankful for his single person room. If he had a roommate they would be dead ten times over. Jinyoung was irritable when he got off work, and even more irritable when he woke up early for his job. At least it paid him, slightly above minimum wage. He unlocked the door to his apartment/one room dorm and slumped down onto the old, saggy couch, his head dangerously close to an unknown stain that been there since before he moved in. Despite his numerous attempts at scrubbing it away, the stain remained persistent. The late afternoon/early evening sun filtered through the thin curtains, warming Jinyoung's dark hair and clothes. He decided to catch up on some outstanding homework, not bothering with dinner that evening. After what seemed like days (it was only about two hours) of assignments, Jinyoung put his head on the desk and drifted off to sleep.

-

The alarm pierced Jinyoung's ears. He checked the digital clock that was producing the assaulting noise. Five in the morning, right on time. Today was one of the aforementioned "holidays", as it was one of his few Fridays off of school. He had to be at the shop by 6:30, again wondering what poor soul would buy books at such an ungodly hour and why it had to be him that clocked in at that time. He dragged himself out of the desk chair and grabbed his glasses, shoving them onto his face and not caring if the frame bent. A brief look out the window at the grey sky told him that today was a day for long sleeves. He put on his school logo hoodie and a pair of old black jeans with holes in the knees, thankful for the lack of an employee dress code. He trudged to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face to wake him up, and proceeded to comb through his mop of hair. After his short but sweet morning routine, he made his way to the nearby bus stop. The day was dry but cool, a brisk seven degrees Celsius with a slight breeze. On the occasion that the breeze picked up, dust was blown around and somehow always found it's way into Jinyoung's eyes. Eventually he learnt to close his eyes when the breeze picked up to avoid the painful dust particles making their way into his vision. It was one of these times that he continued walking for some reason beyond his comprehension, which led to him colliding with a very rushed stranger. Said stranger spilled their fresh coffee, the liquid drenching Jinyoung's hand before falling to the pavement. Jinyoung mumbled an apology and simply hoped that he could continue on his way, but a small hand on his arm caused him to turn around to face his unintentional victim. 

"Watch where you're fucking going next time, you spilled my coffee everywhere! That cost me like $9! Do you have any regard for anyone else? What, walking with your eyes closed?" The stranger continued to rant at Jinyoung but his words faded to background noise as Jinyoung observed his face. The stranger's eyes glittered with anger but presumably glittered when he wasn't angry as well, when the sun hit them just right. Said eyes were framed by long eyelashes that made them appear as if they curled upwards at the ends. His round cheeks were dusted a rosy pink from the wind, highlighting his cheekbones. His lips - though chapped - were pillowy and red, Jinyoung was tempted to shush him with a finger just so he could touch them. A violent shaking brought Jinyoung out of his trance, the very angry (and attractive, if Jinyoung may add) stranger still yelling at him over his perceived crime. It was just coffee, some people really took things too seriously. Or, alternatively, Jinyoung didn't take anything seriously enough. 

"Yah, kid! Listen to me! I don't have time to deal with you right now. We settle this at 4:30 at the Starbucks on Main Street. Don't be late." Jinyoung weakly nodded, the pain in his hand making itself known. The stranger turned to leave but Jinyoung called out after him.

"What's your name?" Without turning, the stranger shouted his answer back at Jinyoung.

"Park Jihoon!" Park Jihoon flashed Jinyoung his middle finger and disappeared into the crowd. Jinyoung shook the remaining coffee off his hand, hoping he didn't look like some sort of stalker by how he strained to watch Jihoon's disappearing figure. He got to the bus stop just in time to catch the number six bus that would take him to the shop. He checked his watch for the time, which read 6:07 am. Maybe it was a little too early for his heart to be racing this fast.

He arrived at work at 6:20, using his spare ten minutes to tend to his hand that was now screaming with pain. Luckily he wasn't the only one on shift, and he informed his unfortunate coworker that day that he would be leaving at four. The girl nodded cheerily, goddamn new employees thinking that everything here would be a cake walk. The girl continued organizing their new stocks, which Jinyoung noticed she was doing completely wrong. He told her to go work the counter because literally no one would walk into a bookstore at 6:30 in the morning, she couldn't possibly mess up just standing there and smiling her stupid cheery grin. He turned to the mess of a shelf that she had left for him. Everything was out of alphabetical order, this girl was either painfully illiterate or Korean was not her first language. He sighed and took everything off the shelves and began to organize it properly. There were times his perfectionism came in handy, and this was one of those times. Once the shelves had been organized to his standards, he continued about his regular work. He had expected this day to go slowly, but before he knew it it was his lunch break. He walked to the next door cafe to get a croissant and some water, and ate it in the back room of the bookstore. The new girl didn't talk to him during his lunch break. The amount of customers only started picking up around one, just like every other day. Jinyoung had considered talking to management about the painfully early hours, but he was essentially getting paid to do nothing so he decided against it. Jinyoung was hoping that the afternoon would pass by as quickly as the morning. He and the new girl fell into a sort of rhythm with each other, her working the counter and him working the floor as he was more experienced. By the time four came around, Jinyoung had never been more grateful to leave. He was about to catch the bus home and nap when he remembered his "date" (to put it loosely) with Jihoon. He sighed and walked to the Starbucks on Main Street, thankful that it was only two blocks away. He arrived with 15 minutes to spare, selecting a small table near the window before the barista could rope him into buying some overpriced and excessively sweet drink. He put his head in his arms and waited for Jihoon.

Jinyoung didn't think he'd fallen asleep, but a sharp flick to the side of the head woke him up. He turned to see Jihoon scowling at him.

"Wake up coffee boy, we're settling this." Jinyoung found the other's frown amusing. Before his rationale stopped him (he blamed it on sleep deprivation), he spoke.

"Stop frowning like that, you'll ruin your pretty face." Jihoon's features momentarily softened in surprise as his cheeks turned as pink as the strawberry drink displayed behind him. His frown then returned as he hit Jinyoung in the side of the head.

"Yah! Compliments won't get you out of this!" Jinyoung couldn't help but laugh to himself at Jihoon's frustration. This only aggravated Jihoon. Jinyoung felt Jihoon's small hand grip his arm and drag him to the counter.

"We settle this here, coffee boy. Buy me whatever I order and you're forgiven." Jinyoung nodded, how bad could Jihoon's order be?

Apparently, quite bad. It came to a total of $22, excluding the price of Jinyoung's black coffee. When they called Jihoon's name, he smugly returned to their table with his large, colourful drink.

"You know, I don't usually get things like this but I had to use your debit card to my advantage." Jinyoung sighed and sipped his coffee. Jihoon studied the name scrawled on Jinyoung's cup. He tested it out.

"Jinyoung? That's your name?"

"Yep, that's me."

"A pretty name for a pretty boy." Now it was Jinyoung's turn to blush. "But-" Jihoon reached up and brushed Jinyoung's hair away from his eyes, "get a haircut. Your girlfriend can't see your eyes with it like this." Jinyoung laughed again.

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"Then, your boyfriend."

"Jihoon, I'm single." Jihoon's eyes widened and he withdrew his hand. Jinyoung looked out the window. After a moment of silence, Jihoon spoke again.

"Show me your hand, the one I spilled on after you so  _rudely_ bumped into me." Jinyoung revealed his burnt hand, crude bandage job and all. Jihoon's face fell.

"Yah, kid, this isn't how you should wrap a burn. Let me do it." Before Jinyoung could protest, Jihoon had already produced a first aid kit from his pocket. He unwrapped Jinyoung's hand and frowned at the angry, red marks. With a gentleness Jinyoung hadn't expected, Jihoon wrapped his hand in a gauze bandage. The wrapping was near textbook perfect (Jinyoung would later find out that Jihoon was a medical student attending the same university as him, but that's a story for another time). Before Jihoon could pull his hand away, Jinyoung intertwined their fingers and gave his hand a squeeze, causing the pink blush to return to Jihoon's cheeks.

Jinyoung returned home that day in a good mood for the first time in six months, Jihoon's number scribbled on the back of his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo I tried something new here and I'm sorry if it's no good. It's also loosely inspired by another fic I read but I can't remember the name for the life of me... anyways leave your thoughts if you have any because this shorter style of writing is newer to me so it's probably a little messy!


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